Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many nurseries have had to (a) close or (b) turn children away due to a reduction in staffing numbers in the last week (a) in York and (b) nationally in the last 2 years.

The department does not hold information on how many nurseries have had to close, or reduce attendance, due to a reduction in staffing numbers over the last two years. However, the department has monitored the status of early years settings during the COVID-19 outbreak, from April 2020 to December 2021. On 9 December 2021, 5% of early years settings were reported to be closed. Data for York shows that 1 setting out of 214 was reported by their local authority to be closed on that date.

The department is also currently inviting nurseries to take part in a short-term, regular survey running to understand the impact of COVID-19 on early years settings. This focuses on workforce and child absences.

Due to low sample sizes, the department does not analyse or publish the findings of this survey at a local authority level, but can provide national figures. For the week commencing 17 January, 5% of settings reported to be partially open, while 2% were temporarily or permanently closed. Of the fully or partially open providers responding to the survey, 4% said their provision remained open but with restricted attendance because of workforce absences.